Bengal on Tuesday logged 12,290 Covid-19 recoveries, 5,427 new infections and 98 deaths.

With this, it reported a drop by 6,961 in its total of active cases to 19,295, less than 20,000 after April 9, 60 days ago, and daily toll below 100 after May 3, 36 days ago.

“Everything else has been improving for weeks. The daily death toll was the final frontier in the second wave,” said a minister.

The total number of active cases, which was at an all-time high of 1,32,181 on May 21, has improved by over 85 per cent in these 18 days.

Bengal now has 1.56 per cent of the national total of active cases, and is out of the top 10 states with most such cases, jumping from the eighth spot to the 12th in a day.

The recovery rate rose for the 38th consecutive day, rising by 13 percentage points over five weeks, to 97.47 per cent on Tuesday. The national rate now is 94.5.

“We are truly en route to getting past the second wave, emerging from it decisively now. The restrictions put in place since May 16 helped immensely,” added the minister.

The daily confirmation rate, which had peaked in the second wave at nearly 33 per cent, fell to 9.01 per cent on Tuesday. A decreasing positive confirmation rate indicates reducing levels of Covid-19 spread.

The state now has a total of 14.37 lakh cases, since the first was reported on March 17 last year. The total includes 14.01 lakh recoveries and 16,460 deaths.

Bengal’s overall mortality rate is 1.14 per cent, while the national rate is 1.21. Of the 98 deaths reported on Tuesday, 21 were from Calcutta and 27 from North 24-Parganas.

Calcutta logged 528 new infections, North 24-Parganas reported 1,109.

The total of active cases in the two districts, which was over 53,000 in the third week of May, is barely 6,000 now.